Gray Maynard meant no disrespect in helping UFC 142's Jose Aldo

RIO DE JANEIRO – Understandably, Chad Mendes was irritated by the suggestion that he isn’t ready to fight UFC featherweight champ Jose Aldo.

But the owner of that suggestion, Gray Maynard, said he isn’t out to get the featherweight challenger.

“It’s not like I’m flying over here because I want Chad to lose and there’s a grudge and I want him to lose,” he told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “Not at all.”

Mendes (11-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC) takes on Aldo (20-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) in the main event of Saturday’s UFC 142 event, which takes place at HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro. It’s main card airs live on pay-per-view while preliminary-card fights air on FX and stream on Facebook.

The appearance of a grudge seemed clear when Maynard weighed in on the featherweight title fight, but he said too much has been made of it.

The two-time lightweight challenger left his Las Vegas gym, Xtreme Couture, in the middle of camp for UFC 136 and had been looking for a new home in the wake of his loss to Frankie Edgar. Behind the scenes at the fall pay-per-view event, he was struck by the humility of Aldo, who went on to defend his title against Kenny Florian.

So when Maynard heard Aldo was to fight Mendes in Rio de Janeiro, he called up Aldo’s manager, Ed Soares, and volunteered to help.

“For the longest time, I never traveled anywhere,” Maynard said. “I stayed at Xtreme Couture, which played a huge part in my career, and I appreciate them. But it’s time for me to take a step and experience more MMA.”

Maynard trained with Aldo for the past three weeks and grew extremely fond of the champ and his camp, Nova Uniao. During that time, he gave an interview to Brazilian website Tatame in which he said he didn’t think Mendes was ready.

Mendes fired back in the press and said Maynard had little basis to make such a call.

Maynard, though, said no disrespect was intended.

“I like Chad; I met him a couple of times,” he said. “But I like Jose, how he trains, where he’s from – his whole story. So I thought it was an opportunity I could help.”

Experience is exactly what Maynard has gotten south of the equator, and when he returns to the U.S. on Monday, he’ll move full-time to Santa Cruz, Calif., just an hour’s drive from American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, Calif. A month at the camp after his loss gave him another fresh look at life outside of Las Vegas.

He’ll barely unpack his bags before he then flies off to Holland to work with former kickboxing champ Andy Souwer. So he doesn’t have much time for grudges.

“I’m just trying to learn a lot and evolve and create a new me,” Maynard said.

As the UFC 189 tour made its last stop in Dublin, featherweight champ Jose Aldo was met with a torrent of abuse from the Irish fans. It might have been unpleasant, but it might also have been just what he needed.